Trouble in Paradise

[Woland]

Woland, how dare you come in here talking about such a nice ride without posting any photos....
Do you know I used to date a nice Swedish girl and know exactly where you're talking about?.... beautiful countryside... though I did more snow machine riding than bike riding while there.



I should have my replacement drive shaft and boot Monday or Tuesday.
It seems whole swing arm will need to come off to change it, as I can't seem to slide it out the rear without it getting stuck.

DIY to follow.

Of course I know you used to date a girl from Gothenburg, that's why I felt it was prudent of me to rub your nose in my lovely ride;) No pics due to a poo camera that makes it little fun to take them.

Looking forward to your DIY.

[Lost Rider]

Doing it yourself.

I scored a used shaft online for a more reasonable price than new, out for delivery today so I figured I'll get a head start on things.

I needed to buy a 30mm socket and 12mm allen bit to start taking the swing arm off.



So lets get to getting Roadie back on the road, and in true Roadie form, without the fancy BMW special tools!


Remove exhaust, remove lower shock bolt.






Remove plastic cover, take 30mm socket to remove nut, then use 12mm allen to remove insert.






Remove bolts, though I don't believe you need to remove the center one as it's there to receive the BMW tool the pro's use to remove the insert.





Here's where a little Roadie engineering comes in to get the insert out, they use this tool to screw in and pull it out using the impact weight.




I went to the hardware store and bought a steel rod, came in from the other side after removing the 30mm nut and insert, and pulling drive shaft back, then gave it a few whacks with a big hammer and out it came.


















The other U-joint looks quite different than the rear one, I'd imagine my failure is from a combination of things, starting with my bikes history, then the incident in Mexico and not having the boot sealed well afterwards...









A good cleaning is in order while I wait for the parts...



















Now I wait.

[Woland]

A good cleaning is in order while I wait for the parts...





Now I wait.

That doesn't look pretty. Are you sure your "friend" didn't use it as a bong while in Mexico?

[Lost Rider]

That doesn't look pretty. Are you sure your "friend" didn't use it as a bong while in Mexico?

Maybe if he did smoke some more he would have chilled out...





Parts came!









A liberal amount of this:








This new one looks much better








This one too, nice and sealed up now








A little locktite








Don't forget the little rubber doohickys






Some correct torque all around, a double-triple check of my work and Roadie's BACK and feeling super smooth once again!




Overall it was a somewhat painless operation, I'm still feeling lucky it happened when it did and while I don't mind wrenching on the R, I much prefer to ride it and will do a better job at inspecting things that matter because Roadie doesn't like tow trucks at all, but has forgiven me.

[Woland]

Congrats, seems like it was a reasonably pain free experience fortunately. How much did it cost you?

Lovely pics as usual

I salute your fine work with a vodka tonic

[dokotela]

75,000 miles on one shaft drive, the way your bikes been used. I'd say that's a pretty good life expectancy from a shaft.

[r1200rclassic]

Lost, can you come up with any good preventative maintenance ideas or recommendations on how to prevent the shaft from getting rusted or damaged for a newer bike? Maybe spray some silicone spray up in the works, or other rust preventative oils? Or is this something better left alone?

[deilenberger]

Lost, can you come up with any good preventative maintenance ideas or recommendations on how to prevent the shaft from getting rusted or damaged for a newer bike? Maybe spray some silicone spray up in the works, or other rust preventative oils? Or is this something better left alone?

Not "Lost" - but see above about making certain your boots are fully sealed to the rear drive and swingarm.

[pizzmor]

Awesome. Thanks for posting those pics.

[R12RnHouston]

Hello, folks,

This discussion and Joe’s DIY photos have inspired me to replace both of the deteriorating rubber boots on my swingarm. I ordered the parts this morning, now I need to round up wanting tools and supplies. Amongst the things I still need is spline grease. Joe, I’m curious if you used the BMW GL-261 microlube because you already had it on hand? I’ve done some searching, and am still not sure what lube I might want to purchase and if something like this http://www.beemerboneyard.com/gdmoly2oz.html might be a better choice over BMW for just a few dollars more? I want to be as effective as I can while I have the works all “opened up”!

Cheers!

David

[BigEasy]

Again, I'm not Lost in person (in other ways yes I am) but in research for spline lubes to use in maintaining mine I somewhere (possibly JVBs video???) found a recommendation for using the Honda final drive moly lube. Kind of makes sense to me since the Gold Wings are a pound or two heavier than the R biks.

BTW Joe, nice work. I'm happy for ya that it wasn't a heck of a lot worse grenade.

[crazyhorse]

i suppose roadie was at teakettle junction where i saw your 'freedom' sticker too, or was that from someone else?

[Lost Rider]

Joe, I’m curious if you used the BMW GL-261 microlube because you already had it on hand? I’ve done some searching, and am still not sure what lube I might want to purchase and if something like this http://www.beemerboneyard.com/gdmoly2oz.html might be a better choice over BMW for just a few dollars more? I want to be as effective as I can while I have the works all “opened up”!

Cheers!

David

Yeah, I just had it, I've used the BMW lube for the life of the bike on the splines, and this failure didn't have anything to do with the spline lube as far as I can tell, for whatever that's worth. So I don't have an opinion on what lube works best, if there i such a thing. Keeping that boot sealed up with regulary scheduled maintenance and don't worry about it would be my thought.



dokotela,
While at my local dealer last week I noticed there were a few broken drive shafts on the "wall of shame", they had broken identically to mine, though some of them were from older bikes. They said "those" guy likes to jump curbs and do wheelies"….
I don't jump curbs, I do however like wheelies now and then with a crack and bounce in first or second, I also like to feel that big boxer pull hard, banging through gears when road conditions allow, and my off-tarmac habits, the mexico incident plus not having the boot perfectly sealed all the time and here I am. Yeah, not a bad run for the shaft…. I spent much more money than that on chains and sprockets on the 8GS with similar miles.
I highly recommend doing like I did, just ride it having a whole lot of fun, and possibly expect to have to spend $350 on a used part somewhere later in the R1200R's life for a drive shaft. If you happen to break down somewhere very remote, you'll figure it out plus have a great story to tell and remember. Money well spent IMO and a small price to pay for feeling as alive as I do with the Roadie, you can't take it with you....





crazyhorse, yeah that might have been me…. You win!
I have a scavenger hunt going with my decals on ADV, Death Valley has many in quite a few obscure places.
If you'd like a few shoot me a PM with your address I'll send you out a few. Being reflective they make good helmet decals, for safety reasons of course.



Thank you fellows for the supportive comments.

[R12RnHouston]

Sounds like a plan! Thanks!

[R12RnHouston]

Well, as I expected with a history of a rear boot that would not stay in place, mine is a mess inside.

[celticus]

Joe, I reckon I don't get out much but I have just read about your drive shaft. I'm glad you've got it all back together. If you wern't you we would not have all the helpfull data and photos. If I was you I would have my ABS problems solved also.
Take care

Mark